


Runs In The Blood

by Wildcard



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, F/M, Fix-It, Happy Ending, and discussion of the persecution Jews in Egypt endure, but I hope you like the ending at least, this is a little heavier than the other two pieces, warnings for mentions of animal abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-15 23:37:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18083153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wildcard/pseuds/Wildcard
Summary: Erik gets his family out of Poland in time and flees to one of the last places that anyone would look for a survivor of the Holocaust: Cairo.Nina finds herself a new family and a cause of her own.





	Runs In The Blood

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ashling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashling/gifts).



Cairo was practically the polar opposite of Poland but Nina loved it all the same.   
  
It was so hot all the time! She could run around in shorts and tank tops, feet clad in sandals instead of boots. The endless summer browned her skin quickly, contrasting with her now-black hair. Her father had dyed their hair before they'd fled Poland, changing their looks as much as possible to match the new passports that he'd produced from somewhere.   
  
Six months in and he still insisted that Nina wear her fake glasses everywhere. Her mother had at least talked him into letting Nina wear sunglasses instead but his paranoia wasn't fading. It didn’t help that the city was full of Muslims and the dominant language was Saidi Arabic; Hebrew and Arabic jumbled around inside her head, her father suddenly more insistent on teaching her of her Jewish heritage in this city that was so hostile to them. Jewish property was confiscated, Jews were expelled - every day, she saw her father chafe under the city’s restrictions but stay because he knew it was the last place anyone would look for him.   
  
He had survived one Holocaust. Nobody would believe he could keep his head down in a country where his own people were so poorly treated.   
  
There had been Jews in Egypt since the time of the Pharaohs, he told her, and they would not be chased out.   
  
Her mother said that no matter where they went, Erik would find a battle to fight, but she didn’t argue beyond that. She only fretted    
  
Despite all that, her parents let Nina run around the city on her own and that was enough to keep her content.

  
There was so much to do in Cairo! The stray dogs told her of people who shot them, who abused them, who poisoned them. The donkeys were overworked and complained of owners who would beat them when their tired bodies couldn't obey commands anymore. The animals in the zoo, however, were the worst off.   
  
Nina wouldn't let that sort of mistreatment continue.

 

\-------------

 

Panting, she bolted down the street with the shouting men in close pursuit.The dogs ran at her heels, as close as a wolf-pack clustered around their alpha, but they'd be no good in an actual fight. They were scrawny things, ribs showing through their fur despite her attempts to feed them up, and she wouldn't risk them in combat when it was so much safer for them to flee. Animals didn't have much worth in the eyes of the Cairo citizens but she was a white girl who could pass as a tourist. She'd be safer.

Safer was not the same as safe.   
  
Legs pumping, she whirled around a corner and nearly ran into a tall, brown girl with a spiky punk haircut. The girl took a look at the pack of dogs, at Nina's sweat-wet face and then cocked her head to a side as she heard the shouts of Nina's pursuers.   
  
"They caught you stealing?" She asked, tone not entirely unsympathetic.

"The dogs were hungry," Nina said, refusing to sound ashamed. "I needed meat for them."   
  
"It's not the first time you've stolen from them. Always you feed the dogs and birds and cats, never yourself. Why is that?"   
  
Nina took a cautious step backwards, eyes narrowing.   
  
"Have you been watching me?" She demanded. The dogs bared their teeth, splitting up so that half faced the corner and half faced this new threat.   
  
"Yes," the girl said, the corners of her mouth crooking upwards. "A new mutant in my city? Of course I watched you."   
  
The sounds of pursuit grew closer and Nina glanced back before turning her attention to the new threat. Her father would be so furious that she'd not hidden her powers well enough, but if these men caught her, they'd be far worse than her father would.   
  
The girl hadn't said 'mutant' as if it were a dirty word. Nina bit her lower lip, hands curling into tight fists at her side.   
  
"I have food at home. They don't. They don't even have homes. Please, now that I've told you, will you help me?"   


The girl regarded her gravely, then raised a single hand. Around her, Nina felt a breeze begin to stir.   
  
"Follow me," the girl said, "And I'll make sure they're distracted."

  
  
\--------

 

"This is Storm," Nina announced brightly, walking into their house hand-in-hand with her new best friend. "She's a mutant like us. Can she stay for dinner?"   
  
Her father and mother had both frozen at the word 'mutant'; her father unfroze first, stepping forwards with a hand outstretched in welcome.   
  
"Of course. I can see we'll have a lot to talk about," he said.   
  
Storm's wary gaze flickered over Nina's father, then she sucked in a shocked breath.   
  
"You're _Magneto_ ," she hissed.    
  
Instead of dropping Nina's hand, her hold grew tighter as if preparing to yank Nina away protectively.   
  
"Yes," her father said, tone very calm. "And that's one of the things we'll need to talk about."

  
  
\--------

 

Storm was the first to join their family but not the last. Just as Nina collected stray animals, Magneto collected stray mutants.  
  
The Cairo Collective took care of the dispossessed, animal and mutant alike.

Everyone who joined received a new name but for Storm, her favorite title would always be 'sister', bestowed on her not by Magneto but Nina.   
  
Magneto was the head of the Collective but Nina was its heart.

 


End file.
